


The Invulnerable Drumbot

by fracnkie



Series: MCU (Mechanisms Cinematic Universe) [2]
Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Brian focussed, Can be read as polymechs but not explicitly romantic, For the most part, Gen, I was also tired most of the time I wrote this, Identity Reveal, Intentionally Vague Descriptions, Secret Identity, alcohol mention, gun mention, marius has the second most speaking roles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 12:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24849622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fracnkie/pseuds/fracnkie
Summary: 5 times Brian has successfully hidden his secret identity from his friends and 1 time it wasn't exactly his fault
Relationships: Drumbot Brian & Marius von Raum
Series: MCU (Mechanisms Cinematic Universe) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1797709
Comments: 45
Kudos: 192





	The Invulnerable Drumbot

**Author's Note:**

> Important Notes:  
> \- The Mechs are all superhero in a group called The Mechanisms  
> \- They all live in one house and most of them share rooms  
> \- Aurora Striker = Nastya = Superspeed (among other powers)  
> \- Drumbot = Brian = Invulnerability (among others)  
> \- Hades = Ashes  
> \- d'Ville = Jonny  
> \- Gunpowder = Tim  
> \- The Baron = Marius = Metalpathy + Healing (and a pocket dimension but that's not important for this)  
> \- Everyone pretty much knows TS and the Toy Soldier are the same but they think saying so will reveal their identities  
> \- If you got an update notification it’s because I did a recon on Marius’ hands or lack there of

The problem that comes with not being able to sustain injuries is that you don’t exactly feel pain like a person should. Sure, Brian feels pressure, the scrape of a knife, and can get sick, but when pain is a dull flash it’s not really a thing to worry about. Sometimes he forgets that others don’t feel the same way about pain that he does, though, and that’s how he ends up losing his knife privileges for the next week.

It starts when he’s so incredibly bored in the store. It’s an eight-hour shift on a Wednesday and he can count the number of customers he’s gotten on one hand. He’s tried entertaining himself plenty and having a check out counter that is hard to see from the door lends to an easy distraction. He’s changed the music in the store about eighty times, flipping through whatever playlist he can find on his phone and eventually getting lost reading an article about eyeball planets for twenty minutes before the door chime makes him jump a foot into the air.

He thinks that one of the good things about his invulnerability is the fact that his feet never hurt after an eight-hour shift. Marius is complaining almost constantly about it and has expressed jealousy at Brian’s ability to walk away from a shift without aching. He complains a lot less when Brian makes a food run to the corner store because Marius doesn’t want to get up.

Between that tangent of thought and him fiddling idly with the pocket knife he tends to keep on him, a very dumb idea comes to mind. He flicks the knife open and close somewhat distractedly. It was a stupid trend when it was popular and time hasn’t proved it less reckless. People and their so very vulnerable skin. Brian, on the other hand, doesn’t exactly have anything to lose by trying. He can’t cut himself or anything so really it’s a no-lose investment for him. He purses his lips and stares at the knife, trying to come up with any good reason not to.

So when Marius comes in with Brian’s lunch it’s really his own fault for not hearing the door chime. Well, he did hear it, he just didn’t entirely care. He had glanced slightly at the camera, decided if anyone needed him they’d come to the desk like they always did, and started up with his humming again.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Marius exclaims in a not-question as he rounds the corner.

Brian looks up, blinking owlishly. His pocket knife sits point-down in between his ring and middle finger with the point dug into the canvas backpack he set on the counter to prevent any marks from the knife. Marius marches forward, deposits the plastic bag of food on the counter, and quickly snatches the pocket knife from Brian’s hand.

“You’re supposed to be the responsible adult out of us!” Marius says, gesturing with the now-closed pocket knife. 

“That’s hardly fair,” Brian says in a deadpan, tearing the knife from Marius’ hand just as quick. He shoves it in his pocket and looks back up at Marius with a sigh. “I didn’t cut myself if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“That really doesn’t make me feel better,” Marius says, rolling his eyes as he opens the plastic bag and starts pulling out brown to-go boxes. “I feel like I’m going to have to take that from you.”

“Then how will I heroically fight off muggers?” Brian asks, cocking a smile as he grabs the box Marius hands him and a plastic fork wrapped in even more plastic.

“With your charm?” Marius suggests, smirking up at Brian and moving to the side of the counter to leave the front empty. “Have you ever actually fought a mugger? I really don’t think you have the guts to stab a man.”

“I don’t need to stab someone to threaten them with a knife,” Brian says, opening up the box of fettuccine. “They probably don’t have the guts to stab me either. Like how you can smash a spider despite the fact it won’t hurt you.”

“Alright, one, that analogy doesn’t make sense.” Marius glares at him as he stabs into his pesto with the fork. “Two, I’m not scared of spiders.”

“Sure, you aren’t.”

“I’m stealing your knife.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

* * *

There is a lot of noise coming from Ivy, Raph, and TS’s room. Brian is all set to ignore it like he usually does until he hears the sound of a drill. Okay, that’s weird. They don’t even own a drill in this house. Where did they get a drill? And so he gets up, closes his laptop, and cautiously walks down the hall and to one of the larger bedrooms in the house.

“Watch out!” Ivy yells pretty much as soon as he walks through the open door to the room.

Of course, it’s not a fast enough warning as a shelf collapses above him and the full force a wooden shelf, three full-length novels, and two bookends come crashing onto his head. Sure it doesn’t hurt but the feeling of his teeth grinding against each other isn’t amazing. Neither are the splinters in his hair as the wooden shelf pretty much cracked down the middle where it hit him.

“You look unwell,” is the first thing that’s said to him, which is fine because it’s TS and if anyone knows how he’s feeling in this situation it’s it.

“Oh, you definitely have a concussion,” Raph says from above.

Brian looks up to see Raph hanging off of the top of the door in a way that is definitely not good for the hinges. He deadpans up at her and then looks down at the floor where the books and remains of the shelf are, as well as Ivy who is more concerned about the books than she is about Brian for some godforsaken reason.

“What were you three even doing?” he asks, looking back up at Raph.

“Well, I was taking down the shelf,” she explains.

“While hanging off of the door?” 

“… yes?”

“And with everything still on it.”

“I didn’t want to bother.”

He blinks up at her, suddenly very tired. He looks back down at Ivy, who seems to have made sure all the books are perfectly fine.

“Why did you let her do that?” he asks as she gathers the books into her arms like they are incredibly fragile.

“She said she would catch it,” Ivy shrugs. She finally looks up at Brian and catches a glimpse of the wood dust in Brian’s hair. “The light in here is bright. Close your eyes.”

“What? No,” Brian crinkles up his nose. “I don’t have a concussion.”

“Close your eyes!” Raph says from behind him with a sing-song voice. Suddenly there are hands covering his eyes that he quickly jerks away from, ducking under Raph’s hands and spinning to face her.

“I don’t have a concussion,” he repeats. “And when did you get down?”

“Look at my finger,” she says as she puts one finger up. Brian immediately glares at her instead of the finger. “Look at it!” she pouts. So Brian sighs and of course looks at the finger. Whatever makes her feel better. “Alright, follow it with your eyes!” He does, easily. “What’s your name?”

“Brian Arzt.”

“Do you know where you are?”

“In our house.”

“What just happened?”

“I came to find out why you three were making so much noise and got beaned by a falling shelf.”

“Do you feel dizzy?”

“No.”

“Nauseous?”

“No.”

“Do you have a headache?”

“Nope.”

“Blurred vision?”

“Not a chance.”

“Alright, fine,” she says, shoulders falling slightly. “But you don’t get to sleep for the next five hours and if you get nauseous or get a headache you tell us immediately.”

Brain sighs and crosses his arms. He turns to look back at Ivy, who nods while she picks up the heavy, iron bookends. He then looks up at TS, who is sitting on its bed. His expression is one of exasperation, which it only returns with a bright smile.

* * *

A pen hits Brian in the temple as he’s just trying to relax for once on the couch. Okay, not really relaxing as he’s frantically reading through medical journals and trying to study for his midterm. He’s going to have worry-lines before 30 at this rate. He wrinkles his nose and brings a hand up to his temple to rub away the mockery of pain that isn’t there. 

“If you keep ignoring me it’s going to be a needle next time,” Jonny grumbles.

Brian sighs and looks up, pushing his laptop toward his knees slightly as he leans back. Jonny is standing in the front door, arms crossed over his chest and the too-cold late autumn sun streaming in behind him. Oh right, he’s also letting out all the warm air.

“Did you need something?” Brian asks, slightly irritable as his focus slips. “You know how hard it is for me to focus after you distract me.”

“How well can you climb a tree?” Jonny asks.

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything, I just can’t climb a tree.”

“So why do you want to know if I can?”

“Because I need you to climb a tree.”

“I will ask again. What did you do?”

“Can you climb a tree?”

Brian groans, tossing his head back in annoyance. Giving in, he closes his laptop and sets it on the coffee table. He stretches as he gets up mostly for the show of it, and walks to Jonny at the door. Jonny promptly turns around and walks him to one of the trees in the front garden. On the sidewalk next to it is a pair of unrecognizable children who look up into the tree where a bright red frisbee sits a good fifteen feet up.

“You dragged me out here,” Brian says, taking a deep breath, “two days before my midterm, to get a frisbee for the neighbor kids?”

“Yes,” Jonny confirms. Brian can see a light blush on his cheeks as he’s forced to confront what he did.

“You are so lucky you’re cute,” Brian grumbles as he trudges toward the tree.

He wouldn’t be so irritable if he wasn’t so stressed by the upcoming tests and he definitely wouldn’t have said what he said, but he can thankfully ignore the heat rising to his own face by instead struggling up a tree. There’s a considerable amount of leaves on the ground that suggest Jonny tried to shake the frisbee down and glancing at Jonny from below does reveal some minor scrapes and darkening bruises on his forearms. Idiot. At least he tried before he got Brian. Brian sighs as he gets closer to the frisbee, which isn’t exactly hard, but he was a rather active child, and ignoring any feeling of scraping from branches is a lot easier for him than anyone else.

He stretches to reach the frisbee and immediately chucks it downward toward the kids when he gets a grip on it. It catches the wind on the way down and starts to drift toward the street. Children being children, the older of the two starts to run after it, causing Jonny to run after the kid yelling a charming mix of profanities and well-meant warnings. This is apparently distracting enough that Brian doesn’t pay a whole lot of attention to his footing and what he thought was a juncture was really a very thin and surprisingly smooth branch that his foot slips right off of.

He feels his stomach going into his feet as he immediately starts falling from the tree. His other foot gets caught on a branch by his toe, flipping him upside down right before he can truly start falling.

“Shit!” he yells about two seconds before he hits the ground.

And… alright. If he could break a bone he definitely would’ve snapped his wrist. Given that he can’t, he just feels the soft grass under his palm as he barely stops himself from hitting the ground face first, both hands in front of him and his nose an inch from the ground. Yeah, that probably would’ve hurt if Jonny did that.

“Holy fuck are you okay?” Jonny asks.

Brian pushes himself up and sits back on his heels, dusting off his hands on his knees as Jonny runs toward him, flanked by the two neighbor kids who look somewhat distressed at the fact that Brian just took a ten-foot plummet from a tree. The oldest has their frisbee, though.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Brian says, shaking his head. He rolls his wrist to demonstrate, making it look like he’s just stretching it. “Not a scratch on me.”

“Somehow I don’t believe you,” Jonny says, crossing his arms. “Get up, I’m giving you a check-up inside.”

“You’re not a doctor,” Brian jokes, pushing himself up to stand.

“And you’re not the Invulnerable Drumbot,” Jonny grumbles, grabbing Brian’s forearm to pull him into the house, “so you can get hurt from falling face-first out of a tree.”

* * *

The Lucky Sevens Pub is not exactly bustling. There’s this thing with bars that, contrary to what you’d expect, they aren’t incredibly busy on a Saturday night until it hits about 8 p.m. Brian does plan to leave before then, not wanting to distract Ashes in any case. He’s also exhausted and doesn’t want to spend a night pretending he can get drunk. If that takes nursing a diet soda and being called a pansy by Tim, then that’s fine, but he’s rather enjoying himself over dinner with the gunner as Tim talks about some guy who was being incredibly irresponsible at the shooting range today.

“He nearly smacked himself in the face with the recoil!” Tim exclaims, throwing his hands up. “Do you know how hard it is not to call an idiot with a gun an idiot?”

“I mean, I’m not exactly allowed to call someone manhandling a guitar an idiot,” Brian says, “but I’m only threatened with losing my job and not by the fact my customer has a gun.”

“To _ may _ to to _ mah _ to,” Tim shrugs, flipping his hand about. 

“No, I don’t think it is,” Brian chuckles, absolutely drowning a piece of cod in tartar sauce. 

“You wouldn’t know,” Tim teases, raising a brow at the soaking piece of cod. “You don’t work at a gun range. You work in a shitty music store.”

“It’s not shitty, Tim,” Brian rolls his eyes. “Besides, it’s safer than a gun range. It’s not like I know how to shoot a gun anyway.”

“I could teach you,” Tim offers eagerly. “You have the day off tomorrow, right? No school, no work?”

Brian shrugs, decidedly eating instead of talking now. Tim throws a fry at him for ignoring him but Brian solidly ignores it. Soon, Tim decides to try to flag Ashes down by annoyingly gesturing with his pint the way you can only get away with if you’re friends with the server.

“I will stuff that down your throat,” Ashes says as they approach, swiping the pint from Tim’s hand.

“Oh but it’ll ruin his pretty voice,” Brian teases in between bites. “Whatever will he do if he can no longer sing folk songs loud enough to deafen us at 3 a.m.”

“I don’t need to be able to talk to annoy you,” Tim says, smiling wide.

“We’re perfectly aware,” Ashes says, smiling fondly. “Same thing?”

“Actually can I get the 23?” 

“A sour? You’re gross.”

“And you don’t have taste.”

Ashes laughs at this and quickly walks away. Tim starts talking about some guy at the corner store last night being a creep and how Tim totally diffused the situation even though Brian knows the man could diffuse a bomb better than he can an argument. So he just rolls his eyes and laughs at the funny bits while finishing off his fish. 

“What’s taking Ashes so long?” Tim asks at some point when Brian is just working on the remnants of his fries.

Brian looks around the pub, which is starting to get a little more crowded. He and Tim are sitting in a booth, so he has to push himself up slightly to finally see Ashes talking to someone at the end of the bar. Tim seems to see this too as when the guy unexpectedly throws a punch that Ashes narrowly dodges Tim is out of his seat as quick as Aurora Striker. Brian is out right after him if only to stop him from doing something impulsive.

“No, you need to leave,” Ashes is saying as a friend of the man who tried to punch them holds him back.

“I didn’t even do anything, you dick!” the man exclaims, pointing an accusing finger.

“If they said you have to go, you have to go,” Tim says as he walks up. Brian immediately grabs onto his forearm, knowing this isn’t going to go well.

“You’ve been threatening my customers all night,” Ashes says, voice calm as they ignore Tim. “You need to leave.”

“You tried to punch them!” Tim says, throwing his arms up.

“Tim…” Brian says. He tugs Tim back a bit, shouldering him off to the side. “They’ve got this. Calm down for a second.”

Evidentially, Tim is eying the guy over Brian’s shoulder. Something happens that Brian can barely process because suddenly there is a hard impact across the side of his head that he rolls with on instinct. He blinks rapidly, the surprise staggering him a lot more than the punch. He still keeps his grip on Tim, not loosening or tightening it as he straightens up again.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Tim is yelling, putting his hands comfortingly on Brian. “He didn’t even do anything, you coward!”

“Ugh,” Brian says, more annoyed than anything. He rolls his shoulders. “Can’t even throw a good punch.” He turns toward the guy. “I think it’ll be better for everyone if you leave.”

“And what are you gonna do about it?” the guy asks.

“Nothing,” Ashes cuts in. “But  _ I _ will gladly throw your ass out of here.”

“We’re leaving, we’re leaving,” the friend of the man says in a placating tone. 

Tim, Brian, and Ashes watch as the man and his friend leave, the man is practically dragged out by the other. All the while, Tim has one hand on Brian’s back and the other on his upper arm while Brian still holds onto Tim’s forearm. When the door closes behind them, Ashes heaves a big sigh and starts cleaning up the table.

“Are you okay?” Tim says in a low voice, tugging on Brian’s arm.

“I’m alright, I’m alright,” he insists even as Tim grabs his jaw and starts turning his head to see where the punch landed.

“Are you sure?” Tim pushes. “I know you said he couldn’t throw a punch but that was still right on your cheekbone.”

“Didn’t even hurt,” Brian says truthfully.

* * *

Brian is starting to think that maybe he should fake being hurt more often. While he doesn’t think his friends are quite on to him he does think that the fact he doesn’t react to pain might be… slightly off-putting at the very least. The only other person Brian knows that reacts the pain to the same way is the Toy Soldier, who is just a whole enigma in and of itself. And it’s not like he’s pretty sure nobody knows the Toy Soldier who he fights crime with and the TS that lives in the same house as him and his friends are the same, it’s not very comparable.

“Brian!” Raphaella yells into the house as soon as she gets home. “I’ve come to beat you up with knowledge!”

Brian rolls off of the bed and half drags himself to the living room, looking half dead. Maybe he couldn’t feel pain, but a distinct lack of sleep hits him like a train. Raph, on the other hand, looks rather happy as she plops down on the couch, throwing her backpack onto the coffee table.

“And what were you doing all day?” he asks, rubbing an eye.

“Just went window shopping,” she says, shrugging as Brian trudges over. “Where are your books?”

“Raph, I am way too tired to study right now,” he grumbles.

He stops at the edge of the couch and proceeds to let himself fall over the armrest, putting his arms out in front of himself to stop his nose from getting crushed. Raph laughs as he buries his face in his arms, putting a hand on his head.

“Why were you up so late anyway?” she asks, pulling up her legs to sit with them crossed over each other.

Brian pushes his face out of the cushion. “I was actually studying,” he says. He pushes himself up enough to flip himself over and flop onto his back. “Not that it helped. I’m definitely going to fail this test.”

“Maybe if you studied at normal hours instead of 2 a.m. you would have better luck,” Raph suggests.

“Maybe,” he gives a half shrug and stares up at Raph from his wonderful vantage of the couch.

Eventually, he gets bored of drifting in and out of consciousness and instead sits up, throwing his legs off of the couch. 

“I’m going to get snacks,” he says as he stands. “Want anything?”

“Could you cut me some summer sausage and cheese?” Raph asks as she pulls a new book out of her bag, crumpling the receipt up in her hand.

“Yeah, no problem,” he says, disappearing into the kitchen.

It’s only about two minutes later of Raph being absorbed into her new book that she hears a thump, a crash, a clatter, and a shout of expletives that is definitely from Brian. She furrows her brow and sets the book face down on the coffee table in an attempt to keep her page. 

The kitchen is quaint and small and has what both Ashes and Brian have often described as a huge, wooden annoyance in the center of it. Or what anyone else calls an island with corners that seem to purposely trip you at every turn. That seems to be what has happened as Raph rounds the corner to see Brian on his knees dusting himself off with a knife and a broken glass spread out in front of him.

“Woah, are you okay?” she asks, plucking the knife off the ground.

Brian seems to pause at this like he’s unsure if he’s hurt or not. Eventually, he shakes his head and starts to stand, backing away from the broken glass as he does. Raph looks down at the glass between them and cringes slightly.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Brian says, walking toward the hallway closet where they kept the cleaning supplies. “My hip kind of hurts where I hit it against the wooden annoyance but I don’t think any glass got me.”

“That’s good,” Raph says off-hand as she goes around the island to the knife set. 

“Can’t even get a glass of water without running into that thing,” he grumbles as he starts to sweep up the sparkling, shattered glass.

* * *

How to end to Brian’s horrible, no good, very bad month but with some asshole with powers having a fit in the music store? And, of course, it has to be during his shift so he has no chance to change into his costume, so no costumes for him. What is even twenty times worse is that it’s a Saturday which means both he and Marius work the same shift. Oh joy, now he has to worry his brain out over the fact that Marius can definitely get pummeled by the Rose Red clone with super strength. 

It’s not something he would normally be worried about, it’s just a Rose Red clone after all and those usually had one power and no autonomous control past the word of King Cole. In fact, there’s just about nobody in the store at this point other than the Rose Red and Marius but between Marius  _ being here _ and the cameras that he can’t exactly just smash and blame the Rose Red for he can’t just use his own powers.

So here he is, ducked behind the counter with Marius as they both listen to the Rose Red have a rampage in the shop, throwing displays left and right, and waiting for the Mechanisms to show up. He has one arm wrapped around Marius’ shoulders, pulling him in close, and the other on the back of his head to pull Marius into his chest. Marius, for his part, doesn’t seem scared. He’s not shaking or hyperventilating like any sane person would do during a villain attack. Brian is mostly pulling Marius into him for his own sanity and Marius seems to be humoring him for now.

“We should definitely run,” Brian whispers. “She’s not going to keep wrecking stuff for long. Grab my hand and we’ll go together.”

“What?!” Marius says in a stage whisper, pulling his head up to lock eyes with Brain. “No way! Don’t be reckless. You’re going to get hurt!”

“We’re going to get hurt if we stay here,” Brian insists, grabbing onto Marius’ forearm. “Let’s go on three.”

Marius sighs and furrows his brow. “Alright, fine,” he whispers.

“One…” Brian shifts into a crouch with his weight on his toes. Marius does the same.

“Two…” He puts one hand on the counter to pull himself up, fingers curling over the top.

“Three!”

He jumps to a stand, pulling Marius up with him. The two immediately break off into a sprint as his hand shifts from Marius’ forearm down to interlock their fingers. Marius is just as quick after him well enough to keep pace. At first, the Rose Red doesn’t seem to notice. It’s fine, just a ten-meter sprint from the edge of the counter to the front door. So of course when he thinks it’ll be easy, fine, perfect, does a shadow fall over him and Marius. 

Instinct kicks in, his hand slips from Marius’, and he pushes Marius out of the way with as much force as he can without activating his powers. When the metal shelf comes crashing down on top of him, Brian is fine. He’s perfectly fine despite being pinned down by the weight of two heavy shelves that push into his shoulder blades because he can’t hurt, he can’t feel pain, he’ll be fine especially since he pushed Marius out of the way.

“Brian!” comes the shrill scream of Marius.

Of course, Marius doesn’t know Brian can’t be hurt. Marius doesn’t know Brian is Drumbot because he can’t know that. Not even the Mechanisms know that, so why would Marius think Brian is fine? The most his friends know is that he has an incredibly high pain tolerance.

He opens his eyes and, well, it hurts. Not physically of course but he immediately locks eyes with Marius, all tears and worry as he runs back to Brian. The Rose Red doesn’t seem to care. She only cares about causing problems. So it’s just him and Marius. Marius who is definitely crying as he reaches Brian. Brian who is trapped under heavy shelves but is fine. Marius who doesn’t know that, bless him.

“Can you move?” Marius whispers, grabbing onto the hand that isn’t buried in CDs, records, and broken plastic.

Brian struggles slightly, removing his hand from Marius’ grip to try to push up with that. The shelves only feel heavier when he moves. He’s not weak by any means but weight is weight. He shakes his head, wincing as Marius starts to look around, probably for help.

“Do you trust me?” Marius asks, backing up slightly, hands out like he’s approaching a wild animal.

“Of course I trust you,” Brian says automatically. “Go get help. I’ll be fine. You need to go!”

“I’m not going!” Marius all but yells, then looks around frantically for the Rose Red.

“No, you have to go,” Brian insists. “Trust me, I’ll be fine.”

“No, you won’t!” Marius is turning red at this point. “You’re just a human, Brian. Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” Brian says as he furrows his brow.

“Please don’t tell anyone about this,” Marius says in a whisper.

“Marius you’re not making any sense,” Brian says, panic rising as he hears more and more things come crashing down around him. He’ll be fine, Marius will not. That is the absolute fact. He can’t just say that, though, without sounding like someone that doesn’t care about his own safety. “Just run, please!”

Marius shakes his head and takes a deep breath. Brian tries to push himself up more, only feeling the weight of the shelves dig into his back in a way that should be painful. He twists himself around the best he can, barely seeing things go flying above his head, hitting the walls. Where’s d’Ville or the Baron? Aurora Striker? Toy Soldier? Anybody that could get Marius out of here before he does something stupid?

Suddenly, he can fully turn around. He freezes in shock as his upper body props up from under the shelves. He twists around immediately and scrambles from under it, thanking anything that’s out there that he can’t suffer from the internal bleeding that being crushed by that shelf would cause in a normal person. Brian half runs into Marius, barreling into his chest as he turns to look at what removed the shelf. Marius yelps, arm going around to catch Brian as he stumbles back slightly. At the same time, the shelf falls back down as if nothing was holding it up in the first place.

“Go, go, go!” Marius immediately chants.

He grabs onto Brian’s hand in an ironclad grip and pulls, bringing Brian to his feet. They both make a final sprint out the door, cold winter air hitting Brian’s face as he continues the sprint as far from the shop as possible. Neither of them stops until they’re on the opposite side of the parking lot and behind a white van, sitting on the cold concrete as the Rose Red continues its rampage.

“Holy shit,” Marius says.

Brian squeezes down on Marius’ hand as he nods, agreeing. He’s not out of breath, thankfully. Both of them are hyped up on enough adrenaline to revive three men, though, so he doesn’t begrudge when Marius starts to calm by slumping his head on Brian’s shoulder. He instead plunks his head down on top of Marius’ and squeezes his hand once again for a couple of seconds.

Eventually, Marius calms down enough to process what just happened and sits straight up in a jolt, hitting his head against Brian’s. Brian jolts back and looks at Marius, both worn down. There’s yelling from behind them now on the other side of the car. It sounds, thankfully, like Gunpowder, which makes sense when Brian starts hearing gunfire. 

“You’re hurt,” Marius says, breathing hard.

“No, I’m not,” Brian denies, shaking his head.

“I can help,” Marius looks somewhat desperate, probably all the adrenaline coursing through his system.

He starts to shift away from Brian, who lets Marius adjust him so he’s just sitting against the car with his legs crossed. Marius moves to sit in front of Brian on his knees, who just looks on in amusement.

“I’m not hurt, Marius, I’m fine,” he insists.

“You got crushed by about two tons of CDs and records as well as a few record players,” Marius says, furrowing his brow. “We can’t exactly afford a hospital trip.”

“You’re not a doctor, Marius,” Brian shakes his head. “Even if I had internal bleeding, which I don’t, there’s not much you can do about it.”

“I…” Marius looks down. He bites his lips and looks at his hand for a second, then looks back up at Brian with sparks of determination in his eyes. “I can. Please. You can’t tell anyone about this, though, promise? If anyone finds out about this…”

“You’re starting to really worry me,” Brian cringes back slightly, looking Marius up and down for any sign or clue as to what’s going on. 

“I can heal you!” Marius exclaims, clenching his fist in his lap.

Brian’s eyes snap down to Marius’ hand. A bright, green light comes from his hand like coils of smoke, disappearing into the air not ten inches away. Brian’s eyes widen, breath caught in his throat. He’s pretty much frozen in shock as Marius looks at him, eyes coiling with desperation, determination, and worry. And so Brian does what any sane person does with the amount of information that has been thrust upon him and begins to laugh. Loud and bright and full of mostly shock and adrenaline. Marius, of course, looks shocked. Just revealed his powers and secret identity and one of his best friends laughs in his face for it, what other emotion would he be feeling other than pure shock. The shock that doesn’t decrease and Brian wraps him in a tight hug, pushing up onto his knees.

“I’m fine!” Brian laughs, tightening his grip around Marius’ shoulders as the green light starts to fade. “I’m fine, Baron! Your Invulnerable Drumbot is fine!”

“You- what?” Marius immediately pushes away, looking Brian in the eyes with his mouth and eyes open in surprise. 

“Do you know how hard it is to pretend I can get hurt?” Brian exclaims, still laughing. He brings a hand up to his head to keep himself steady. He definitely needs, like, a granola bar after this to replenish all the sugar the adrenaline has burned through. “I fell out of a tree last week! With Jonny watching! I should have broken my wrist at the very least!”

“You- I-” Marius stutters, blinking rapidly. “You… fucking asshole!”

Marius all but tackles Brian, wrapping him in a hug again as Brian falls against the car he was leaning against, still laughing. Marius starts laughing too as the car alarm starts to go off, blaring loudly as the commotion behind it starts to calm. 

“You and your fucking knife game,” Marius laughs, bringing a hand up to ruffle Brian’s hair. “I thought you were just being an idiot!”

“Are you two alright back here?” a voice says from the side of the car.

Both Marius and Brian look up, laughter ceasing. They land their eyes on Hades themself, coils of smoke and steam coming off of them in waves and their visor covering their eyes. Marius pulls off of Brian, red in the face, but Brian keeps both of his hands on Marius’ shoulders as he does.

“I think we’re fine,” Brian says, glancing over Marius and only seeing a few scraps. “Pretty lucky at that. We were in the store when that lady went crazy.”

“Y-yeah,” Marius says, stuttering as he regains his composure. It’s fine, he’s supposed to be shaken. “Thank you, though.”

“The police are probably going to want your statements,” Hades says, nodding. “Are you sure you’re fine? Neither of you got hurt? I could try to call up the Baron if any of you are.”

“No!” Marius exclaims, shaking his head rapidly. Brian squeezes his shoulder as a warning. “We’re fine! Thank you!”

Hades nods, concern clear, but they aren’t going to push it, and they walk away back to the scene. As soon as they’re out of earshot, Brian thunks the palm of his hand against Marius’ temple, making the man wince and bring a hand up to his head.

“What was that for?” he whines.

“I don’t know how you were able to keep your identity a secret for so long if that’s how you react to Hades offering us help,” Brian chastises. “You need some acting classes.”

“So you do Mr. I can get punched in the face and not even bruise,” Marius says, glaring.

“To be fair, the guy couldn’t throw a punch.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading through this weird AU.  
> This is going to be an ongoing series with my partner and usual beta, KersPastei. If you have any questions about the AU feel free to comment and I will likely answer any questions you have. I don't think there's anything I want to keep secret but I guess that'll depend on the question.


End file.
